£ 458 
.3 

.B45 
Copy 1 



Jr. Neman's Cljanlisgifamg German. 



©lo 



\ix ®ivll fFiir 



THE PPJiXCIPLES INVOLVED, 



CAUSES AND CURE, 



§mmx^t 



DELIVERED ON THANKSGIVING DAY, 



NOV. 27, 1862. 



N. S. S. BEMAN 



TROY, N. Y.: 

A. W. SCKIBNEK i CO., TRINTERS, CANNON PLACK. 

18 6 3. 



e4l^ 



ft'A^ 



61&0S 

•05.1 



i 



DISCOURSE 



Psalm 83 : 4. 
" They have said, come and let us cut them off from being a Nation, — 
that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." 

Isaiah 8: 11-13. 
"For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me, 
that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, saj' ye not A con- 
federacy, to all them to whom this peoj^e sfiall say A confederacy ; neither 
fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and 
let liim be your fear, and let him be your dread." 



I shall make no apolog-y to this audience, for 
occupying- the present hour in giving- you what is 
commonly called a political sermon. The crisis 
in our history imposes a duty upon all good citi- 
zens which the loyal in heart cannot well resist. 
And this duty rests with no less weight upon the 
minister at the altar, than upon any other member 
of the community. Indeed, the special oath of 
God is upon him, and he should be careful to 
maintain a good conscience before his fellow- 
countrymen and the world, as well as before high 



heaven. He has no right, in any circumstances, 
or under any pretext, to ignore, or repudiate, or 
shoulder aside, those obhgations which bind him 
to the social structure of which he is an individual 
element, or a constituent part. 

The popular prejudice which exists in our day 
and in our country, against an occasional discus- 
sion in the pulpit, and especially on a week day, 
of some great subject wliich relates to the policy 
of the government and the good of the people as 
a social body, is a problem which philogophy has 
not yet fully solved. The old prophets were in 
the habit of instructing, and even reproving, 
rulers, when occasion required, — and warning the 
people touching national measures ; and no one 
thought it out of place. The preachers of the 
Revolution were among the most out-spoken and 
zealous patriots, and delivered sermons, not only 
on special occasions, but often on the Sabbath, 
exhorting the half-discouraged people to stand by 
their country, in the dark day of her calamities ; 
and nobody complained, but the tories. The 
Southern clergymen, who, next to the politicians, 
have done more than any other men to kindle the 
fires of rebellion, and fan them into the intensest 
flame, have preached and publislied the most in- 
flammatory discourses against our blessed Union ; 
and their broad and in ispaiing denunciations have 



been advertised and read at the North, and praised 
by the disloyal among- us ; and not a stain of evil 
has been detected in their pages, by such mur- 
murers about political preaching. 

And after all, who is it, that is most deeply 
grieved, by such discussions in the pulpit, in our 
day, and among us \ There may be, and no 
doubt is, here and there a good man — a truly 
pious man — who conscientiously thinks, that the 
pulpit should never admit any thing else than the 
naked law of God and the pure gospel of Jesus 
Christ — and tliat, too, in the most literal sense : — 
that the government of the country, and the civil 
and political rights of the people, should never be 
discussed or hinted at there, because the place is 
too holy for such themes. But the number to 
which I now refer, is very small. The great mass 
of those who shudder at political sermons as pro- 
fane, are those who care not a fig for religion. 
They are too often men who are found' in the pre- 
cincts of the grog-shop, and breathe its pestiferous 
air, and derive their religious inspiration and zeal 
from its predominant and pervading element. And 
I may add, in our day, they are those whose loy- 
alty is doubtful, and who might say, under such 
a sermon, as one said in behalf of his whole class 
or profession, under a discourse of the great 



6 

preacher. — " ^NTaster, thus saying tliou reproachest 
us also." 

The two passages I have placed at the head of 
this discourse, as a sort of suggestive text, relate to 
two distinct historical events, but of the same polit- 
ical character. The passage from the 83d Psalm, 
written by a descendant of the celebrated singer 
and poet, Asoph, relates to a formidable conspiracy 
against the throne of David, in the reign of 
Jehoshaphat King of Judah. Israel rebelled, and 
Judah was loyal. The traitors formed a motley 
crew, composed of Apostate Hebrews, and asso- 
ciated Heathen, and half-breeds. They were 
crafty in counsel and tumultuous in their vain 
boastings. They said, " Come, and let us cut 
them off from being a nation,— that the name of 
Israel may be no more in remembrance." Certain 
political and moral reformations inaugurated by 
Jehoshaphat, had contributed to stir up and intens- 
ify this special enmity at that time. These " con- 
federates " could not bear that such a nation should 
exist and prosper, or its memorial leave a vestige 
on the page of history. They had become des- 
perate. 

The passage from Isaiah relates to a combina- 
tion of the apostate house of Israel with certain 
foreign powers, against the Kingdom of Judah, 
and the house of David. It was a rebellion against 



a government formed and established by God him- 
self, — and occurred in the days of Sennacherib, 
some 150 years subsequent to the insurrection of 
" the confederates " already referred to. It is 
strongly intimated in this divine record, that there 
was a large party in Judah who sympathized with 
the enemies of the government, through fear or 
some other unworthy motive ; but the prophet 
was warned against fellowship with such. " For 
the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, 
and instructed me, that I should not walk in the 
way of this people, saying, say ye not A confeder- 
acy to all them to whom this people shall say A 
confederacy ; neither fear ye their fear nor be 
afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself ; and 
let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." 
It is much better, and much safer to fear God, 
than the .rebels. They are antagonistic powers, 
and God is stronger than men. 

There is a voice uttered in the context, which 
seems to have been spoken prophetically for the 
men of our day, both here upon our own soil and 
abroad among foreign nations. " Associate your- 
selves, ye people, and ye shall be broken in 
pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries : gird 
yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces ; gird 
yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. 
Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught ; 



8 

speak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is 
with us." 

It is worthy of note, that the term " Confeder- 
acy," now in political and popular use, occurs but 
three times in the Scriptures — twice in my text 
from Isaiah and once in Obadiah — and always in 
a bad and odious sense. It is only another name 
for a wicked conspiracy against a legitimate and 
heaven-established government. " Confederate," 
which stands in the context of the passage from 
the Psalms, likewise is used but three times in the 
Bible, once in a good sense, for powers bound in 
treaty stipulations for mutual defence, and twice, 
for base conspirato?-s against the divine institution 
of civil government. The Southern rebels seem 
to have been divinely directed, in one thing, — in 
selecting a descriptive name for themselves and 
their government. They are " Confederates," or 
conspirators, and their government a " Confeder- 
acy," or conspiracy ! We may say of this wonder- 
ful adaptedness of names to the things indicated, 
as the magicians once said to Pharaoli, — " This is 
the finger of God." He lias secretly and mysteri- 
ously led them to write unwittingly their own 
history, and delineate graphically their own char- 
acter. There is a directing providence in the 
affairs of men ; and God lives in human history. 
And he will Hve there, through the ages. "There 



9 

is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hugh 
them as we will." 

The picture of our country, at this day, in con- 
trast with what we have seen it from our earliest 
years, is truly affecting. Tf it were not for sterner 
duties which urge us to more manly deeds, we 
might well sit down here, and weep patriot tears 
over the changes which have passed, and are pass- 
ing- around us. A brilliant skv was once over our 
heads, but the stars by night are now dimmed, and 
the sun by day is suffering a disastrous eclipse. 
A preternatural midnight, in the early evening, 
has settled down upon all that just now smiled in 
beauty and loveliness around us. And the picture 
has warm blood-drops upon it. Death breathed 
upon it, and it withered, — touched it with his 
finger, and defaced and marred it. The grave- 
digger, with his spade on his shoulder, is stealing- 
through the mysterious darkness, having opened, 
and then filled, two hundred thousand graves with 
friends and foes — with murdered citizens and dead 
traitors. With all our manhood we might well 
weep like women, over these desolations which 
have fallen upon our country. The silent sleepers 
beneath our feet, have here and tliere a memento 
to tell us who they are, but most of them lie in 
solitary, or in promiscuous, or mingled oblivion — 

" alike unknowing and unknown." 
2 



10 

The treasures wasted in tliis national conflict, are 
untold. One thousand million, at least, have gone 
down into the deep ocean, to come up no more. 
It might occur to your minds as a fact, affording 
some relief, that nearly one half of this sum was a 
lictitious rebel currency — worth nothing at the 
beginning, and no better now, and not likely to 
improve in time to come. And yet the loss has 
fallen on wmehody. Material good has been sacri- 
ficed, and the means of life and happiness anni- 
hilated. They are gone for ever. 

And look at this beautiful earth which God has 
spread beneath our feet, — smiling in youthful 
promise, and teeming with uncounted wealth. 
Yesterday, it was so, — to-day, how marred, and 
scorched, and cursed. Here fields are imreaped 
and harvests trodden down, — and there, of equal 
native fertility, they lie uncultivated and fallow. 
Fine old forests are felled to the earth to obstruct 
the march of invading armies, and all is martial 
pomp and array. Tents wliiten the hill tops and 
the valleys, batteries are planted every where, 
cities and towns are surrounded with intrench- 
ments and walled bv strong fortifications, and 
fields that once welcomed the plow-share with a 
smiling promise, become battle grounds where 
death rules the hour I The clash of arms and the 
thunder of artillorv rend the air. the death strujrs'le 



11 

ensues, strong men are stricken down, and the 
earth smokes, and the rivers are purpled with 
human blood. Some of the fairest portions of our 
land have become a desolation. Bat the half has 
not been told you. I would not attempt to tell 
you. My powers could not compass the magni- 
tude of the evils, or my tongue utter a tithe of 
their horrors. 

But who, or what, has done all this I What 
fiend, exiled from light and heaven, has visited us, 
and left his cloven foot-prints upon the fairest land 
that ever smiled in the ftice of the opening skies? 
Surely a great foe has been here, and done this 
fearful deed. It is a devil baptized " Secession." 
He has done all this, and he intends to do more. 
This embodiment of all political evils, claims the 
right of Ijreaking up the government formed by 
our fathers, by going out of the Union by States. 
If one man should do such a deed, he would be 
hanged, If a voluntary combination of individu- 
als, should attempt the same, a like fate would 
overtake them. But if a State does the foul deed, 
the panoply of " State Rights " is an ample protec- 
tion in the opinion of some. Mr. Buchanan stood 
amazed, and looked at this fiend, till liis heart, 
which was never known to have any other fiber 
in it, than that of ambition, actually began to soften, 
and he almost fell in love with it. It seemed all 



12 

l»iit "an ang-el of lig'ht," — and it became more 
beautiful, the longer he gazed. It was so near 
faultless, that it would be unconstitutional and un- 
kind to resort to the use of any " coercion " in 
dealing with it. Treason must be coaxed, and not 
coerced, out of its villiany. This tame policy has 
well nig-h made ship- wreck of this republic. It 
would have done it, if God had not brought in 
new agencies to the rescue. And some men feel 
quite grieved and angry that the old part}^ in 
power had not continued to direct the destinies of 
the nation, till the ruin was fully consummated, 
and our fate sealed beyond redemption. 

The right of " secession," either by individuals, 
or combinations of men, or organized State author- 
ities — is a bald absurdity. In speaking to sensi- 
ble men, it would be a waste of time and words 
to construct a grave and formal argument to prove 
this fact. Admit the principle and claims of se- 
cession, and you blot out iUl law. Its soul, or 
essence, which is penalty, is annihilated ; the letter 
is nailed to the gibbet ; and if it retains the sem- 
blance of an organic existence, it is a dead letter. 
" It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast 
out, and trodden under foot of men." Compacts 
and Constitutions, ratified with solemn delibera- 
tion, and consecrated with prayer, and cemented 
with pure, patriot bhjod, become foot-balls for 



13 

wiley demag-og-ues, and are impelled to and fro, 
as mere playtbing-s. We hav^e seen so much of 
this in our day, that we have come to an utter 
loathing of such political hypocrisy. The men 
who framed and adopted our Constitution were 
honest men ; and they took it for granted, that 
their descendants would possess both the intelli- 
gence and integrity to carry out its letter and 
spirit. But they placed, I fear, too high an esti- 
mate upon both. The modern doctrine of " States' 
Rights" — investing these rights with supremacy — 
and arming them with a power to override the 
general government, destroys at once the very ex- 
istence of a nation. The Union, is a compact at 
will. Any member can retire at his option : and 
if one may, all ma}', and the powers of the gov- 
ernment, and solemn stipulations, and foreign alli- 
ances, and the signs and symbols which indicate 
an organic nationality, are swept away at a blow. 
This is the political .heresy which has infatuated 
some otherwise sane minds, and endangered our 
God-given institutions, and cursed our once bless-, 
ed land. This imp of darkness has brought forth 
those " wayward sisters" and then educated them 
thoroughly in her own school, whose charms have 
so smitten some of our modern politicians, that 
they long to go down to Richmond, and have a 
fraternal interview, and then " bid tliem depart in 



14 

peace." The man who holds the doctrine, and 
practices upon it — that any State ma}^ at her op- 
tion, retire from the compact — ratified by the Con- 
stitution, and leave the Union a shattered frag- 
ment — is a traitor and a rebel ; and he is no less a 
traitor and a rebel, who denies this doctrine of 
state rights, and would, at the same time, suffer 
any member of the compact to retire from its po- 
sition without the use of coercion and force to 
prevent it. The united powers of government 
and loyalty are pledged to prevent such a move- 
ment. That government which does not call into 
requisition all the material and means which heav- 
en and earth may furnish to accomplish this end, 
deserves to be rent in atoms ; and that professed 
lo3'alty which does not cordially unite in this 
work, and cry amen to every inch of its progress, 
and is not prepared to sing paeons of glorj^ over 
its final triumph, is do^^•nrigh,t hypocrisy. It is 
empty profession, and nothing else. 

The Author of tliat doctrine which paved the 
wav to this rebellion, has damaged this g'overn- 
ment more than any other man who has ever en- 
joyed in a preeminent degree, its honors and emol- 
uments. John C. Caliioux was a man by him- 
self He stood alone. lie was the inventor of 
the iuel(ti)hysic.s of Politics, — a cool and subtle rea- 
soner, and his conclusions logical, if his postulates 



If) 

had not often been too bold and extravagant to be 
true, and sometimes so numerous as to shake our 
confidence in the strength of his argument. Ad- 
mit his premises, and his inference follows. Many 
have adopted the inference without examining the 
premises with sufficient acumen to discover that 
they are assumed truths — without any reasons — 
which amount, as the logicians say, to " a begging 
of the question." He had but one idol, chattel 
slavery — and this he worshiped with all the devo- 
tion and tenacity of a native-born pagan. Iron 
man, as he was, he bent the knee to this power, 
and to this alone, and his youthful admirers, over 
whom he had great influence, bowed in company 
with him, and the clergy of the South, and espe- 
cially the Old School Presbyterian brethren, came 
to the Jubilee ; and Diana of the Ephesians was 
never hailed with louder acclamations, than, this 
great god of cotton : and now and then has been 
heard a distinct and loud and joyous response 
from the working men — the democratic masses, of 
the North. 

The latter half of Mr. Calhoun's life was de- 
voted to one grand purpose. For this every thing 
else must stand aside. Every opposing agency 
must bend or break. This object was, the exten- 
sion and perpetuation of slavery. Whatever other 
interest may suffer, " this institution must be lion- 



1() 

ored." This lanouaoe was once uttered by him- 
self. His genius and tact gave us Texas ; and his 
doctrines finally broke up the "Missouri Com- 
promise," and inaugurated the bloody scenes of 
Kansas. AYithout slavery we should never have 
had a Calhoun, as position and circumstances final- 
ly developed him ; and without both — Calhoun 
and slavery — we should never have been visited 
by this afflictive civil war. Originally a radical 
democrat of the Jeff"ersonian school, he taxed all 
his talents and all his logic to reconcile his former 
sentiments with his new political and social theo- 
ries. "The Declaration of Independence" which 
stared him in the face, he disposed of by a short 
process. Once — when I first knew him, it was the 
inspiration of his loftiest eloquence ; now it was 
a work of the imagination, and utterly false in its 
positions and principles, or at least only poetically 
true. As to tJie unalienahle rights of man — " life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," they must be 
interpreted with proper restrictions — first settling 
the question, that the black man is a mere outsider 
of the human race. Such a being was created for 
bondage, and not for freedom. God made him 
for this very purpose, and it would be profane to 
mar the workmanship of Almighty God. As Mr. 
Calhoun's heart was not all iron, he defended this 
divine arrangement on the ground of beuevo- 



17 

leiice, — that servitude was the happiest possible 
condition for the colored race, and that some must 
be SLAVES, or none could be truly free. This is 
now the prevailing Southern doctrine, that slavery 
must exist in order to ffive the hio-liest zest to free- 
dom, and, at the same time, insure its permanency 
and triumph. And as Mr. Calhoun, was, by an 
early Presbyterian education, a believer in the 
divine purposes, he cherished the pious hope, that 
American man-stealing might not only bring many 
of these poor heathen across the Atlantic to this 
good land, but, after having given them some of 
the foretastes of heaven, in the earthly Paradise 
of Slavery, might carry them safely over Jordan 
to the better land of Canaan above. 

The contest in which we are now engaged, is 
one of the most eventful that human passion has 
ever stirred up, or human arms, fiercely waged on 
earth. The democratic principle of self-govern- 
ment, is now on trial. Crowned brows, and starred 
shoulders, and mitered heads — the holy alliance 
of tyranny — are empanneled in the jury-box, 
and the world is now all attention to the argu- 
ments of cannon and musketry, in open court, 
and waiting anxiously for the verdict. Freedom, 
or oppression, will be jubilant at its rendering. 
Our experiment of self-government, has l)een tried 
under more auspicious circumstances, than any 



18 

previous one, since tlie world began. Our fathers 
had intellig-ence and virtue. — thev formed a o^ood 
constitution — not perfect, nothing human is, — they 
were firmly iniited together by the strong bonds 
which a death-struggle "v^itli a foreign foe, had 
created, — and God had given us a magnificent soil 
on which to plant our institutions, and begin our 
novel work. If this fails, where shall the attempt 
be made again, — and who shall commence it 1 If 
this star of hope to the nations, be extinguished, 
will the hand of God that once lighted it up for 
us — ever re-kindle it, in the darkened heavens 1 
I tremble as I attempt to peer into the thick clouds 
which hang over the future. God alone can com- 
prehend the great results. We may, however 
anticipate some of them with a probability which 
may not be likely to mislead us. 

And among these we cannot fail to see, that, if 
the rebels prevail, and our Union is shattered, and 
our government broken up, the arm of the despot 
will be greatly strengthened by these calamities. 
That arm will be as heavy and rigid as iron. The 
cry has alread}^ been lifted up all over Europe, 
that (he democratic principle lias been tried, and found 
wanting. Man cannot govern himself Combi- 
nations of men cannot govern themselves. Free 
institutions formed by the people for their own 
■ government, cannot stand. And the final effect of 



19 

all this will be, " the divine right of kings " will 
strike its roots more deeply in every soil, and 
" human rights " will be more wantonly disregard- 
ed by all hereditary powers. It would be argu- 
ment enough to point the slow-moving finger of 
scorn at the fragments of our republic,, as they 
float down the stream of national ruin, and say, 
" There learn the end of all free ins"titutions ! " 
This has been said already — prematurely, I be- 
lieve, — and tyrants have " grinned a ghastly smile," 
as they have said it. 

And this is not all. If secession should prevail 
in any degree — either according to its own large 
expectations, or in a more limited sense, a great 
nation, which was fast coming up to take her seat 
by the side of the most powerful of the earth^-is 
ruined. Her name which has waved triumphant- 
ly upon a Banner more beautiful than any other 
that floats o'er the land — or gleams on the sea, is 
blotted out. A star gone — and the constella- 
tion is marred and dimmed. This hemisphere 
grows dark, and prophesies of dissolution. The 
long future which we have anticipated with so 
much hope in God, and so much hope for man, is 
covered with a dark, thick pall that no eye can 
penetrate. If imagination might speak, she would 
whisper, " Death lies beneath that portentious 
symbol." One State out of the Union by permis-' 



20 

sioii of the g'overnment, jiiid miotlier follows, and 
another, till the once seamless garment is rent in 
twain. Disintegration once begun, the process 
may never be stayed in its course, till the United 
States may be known only in history and chanted 
only in song. This is secession made perfect. 

The influence of this country upon all the in- 
stitutions of the old world, for the last twenty -five 
years, has been such as to reflect credit upon our- 
selves, and to create alarm in many other quarters. 
AVliile there has been too much self-gratulation on 
our part, yet there is no merit in voluntary or 
affected ignorance on this subject. All the move- 
ments in behalf of freedom and the rights of man, 
in European governments, had their birth-place 
and education in the United States. The pagan 
world has felt the power of our free Christianity ; 
and many converts on the other side of the glode, 
having been cheered by our light, now join with 
us in prayer to God, that this light may never be 
dimmed, or extinguished. The Foreign Mission- 
aries tell us, that the native christians take a deep 
interest in this our present national crisis. Should 
our government be prostrated and our country 
trodden under foot of rebels, there is not an inter- 
est of benevolence on our glol)e but would feel 
the shock, and be retard(Ml. The missionary 
abroad would lind his heart de])ressed and his 



21 

hands weakened, and the great pagan world would 
pass into a super-added and deeper gloom. The 
dawn of the millenium would seem to recede again 
into its ancient midnio^ht. 

The statesmen and diplomatists of Europe, have 
become more and more alarmed at our influence 
upon their people ; and they seem to feel, at least, 
a momentary relief from their fears since the 
traitors have uncaped their volcano among us. 
Nations whose civilization and progress should 
have inspired the deej^est sympathy for us, and 
whose record in favor of humanity is before the 
world, have evidently begun to glory in our down- 
fall, and to turn a cold shoulder to us in the hour 
of our trial. The feeling expressed has been this : 
' Come, and let us cut them oif from being a na- 
tion, — that their name may be no more in remem- 
brance.' This clamor about freedom and the 
rights of man and human progress, is not to our 
taste, and we cannot endure it. The United 
States are becoming a dangerous rival, and with 
their growing power and wealth, the principles of 
their p-overnment will commend themselves more 
and more to men of thought and philanthrophy 
the world over. " Come,' and let us cut them off 
from being a nation." ' This is our only sure pro- 
tection.' 



22 

Tliis train of thought has been indulged by 
many a Trans-Atlantic Statesman. The presence 
of such a nation as ours — free, active, self-gov- 
erned, progressive — is fatal to the whole world of 
tyrants. We need not wonder, that the wdley 
Frenchman — usurper as he is — should take an at- 
titude against us, — or his half-starved and unstable 
millions should sympathize with him. But Eng- 
land! Who would have expected such a voice 
from England ? And yet we have heard it. The 
throne and the people of that kingdom who gen- 
erally stand together, are with us, in their " heart 
of hearts," in this fearful struggle for life, — but 
the aristocracy — proverbial for their hauteur and 
their contempt for the progress of the masses, and 
their ecclesiastical appendage — the established 
church of like taste and proclivities — are de- 
cidedly with the rebels. Their heart is there — 
because they have a like heart with them. Two 
that are agreed naturally walk together. There 
is an air of nobility in slave- holding. It gives 
leisure — gives luxury — gives power over man — 
and aives wealth and refinement. It secures a 
sort of hereditary distiiu'tion, — an entailed nobil- 
ity. Take it all in all — there is a charming odor 
about it, — a delightful flavor. In one word slave- 
ry is heautiJuL ' And, then, the slaves toil not less 
for Manchester, than for Richmond. And they 



23 

both reap a rich harvest from fields cultivated by 
slave-labor. While the operatives of the one city 
are kept from starving-, the citizens of the other 
" are clothed in scarlet and fine linen and fare 
sumptuously every day." We see then that the 
aristocracy and clergy of England and the South- 
ern Confederacy are bound together by a strong 
material and social tie. And we need not wonder 
at what is said in high places in Great Britain. 
There is no mystery in these utterances. To a 
philosophical mind, they expound themselves. 
Take a few^ of them as samples, on this occasion. 

England has declared ' that slavery has nothing 
to do with this rebellion and this civil war, — that 
freedom would rather lose than gain with the tri- 
umph of the North, — that the South and the 
North were already two nations.' Such utter- 
ances are a compound of stupidity and perverse- 
ness, — and, in this country, can only provoke a 
smile or a sneer. Earl Russell summed up the 
whole matter by saying, " that the contest was, on 
the part of the North, for supremacy, on the South, 
for independence." Mr. Gladstone echoes this 
most profound sentiment of the noble Earl. It 
was discovered, as long ago as the days of Elihu, 
that " Great men are not always wise." 

Lord Brougham describes this war as the " fran- 
tic rage of a whole people, filled with a thirst for 



24 

vengeance, only to be slaked by each other's 
slauohter." Poor old lord ! His hatred of democ- 
racy, or a popular government, has swallowed up 
and annihilated his once vigorous anti-slavery 
zeal, — and he sees nothing in the struggles of this 
civil war, 'but the visions of free-trade, and the fury 
of such a mob as that which demanded of Pontius 
Pilot the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.' Most of tlie 
Literary and Religious Periodicals of Great 
Britain, are in sympathy with the South against 
the North. The London Review, published by the 
Wesley ans, is the only respectable exception. Dr. 
Campbell of the Standard, assures us that "no 
power on earth can alter his views." Probably 
not, for he is an obstinate Scotchman. " A wise 
man changes his opinion sometimes, a fool never." 

At a meeting of the Gruildford Agricultural As- 
sociation, the Rev. G. Portal, Rector of Aldbury, 
delivered his cruel soul as follows : — 

" If war should unhappily arise between the 
two countries, he hoped there would be no more 
of that maudlin sentimentality, of which we had 
heard so much, about the Americans being our 
blood relations, and that a war with them would 
be as bad as civil war at home. It was all non- 
sense. America separated from us a century ago, 
and since then her population had been recruited 
from every country of the world. In New York 



25 

there were more than 200,000 Germans, and those 
who know wliat ' points ' it took to establish simi- 
hirity of breed must be aware ^vliat sort of simi- 
larity existed between us and that country. He 
was ver}^ much of the opinion of the writer who 
said, that a Yankee was as great a parody upon 
an Englishman, {is a monkey was upon the human 
race:' 

Tiiis savage speech was made about the time of 
the affair of the Trent. It was a dark — dark day 
in English intellect. A general lunacy broke 
loose among the people, at that })eriod. In a 
time of general national dementation, it is truly 
cheering to meet with such names as these : — 
Arthur, the noble Wesleyan, — Bright, the pure- 
minded and honest Quaker, — and Mill, the acute 
political economist. They have uttered words of 
encouragement when most needed by us, — and 
they have uttered words of fearful warning which 
Avill come up in the reminiscences of others, — of a 
selfish and infatuated nation, when the day of 
retribution shall arrive. Whether our Rector of 
Aldbury, spoke under the influence of tlie pre- 
vailing national lunacy, I \\\\\ not undertake to 
pronounce. The law of nature exempts some 
men from mental derangement. He that is born 
a fool, can never become a maniac. 
4 



2fi 

England is the Hvir.o:, and unexpoiinded, Riddle, 
of our world. AVitliout exhausting the subject, 
DeTocqueville has made a few happy hits Avhich 
very naturally occur to the mind in connection 
with these expressions of British opinion on our 
civil war. " In the eyes of an Englishman," says 
this shrewd and philosophical writer, " a cause is 
just, if it be the interest of England that it should 
succeed. A man or a o-overnment that is useful 
to England has every kind of merit, and one that 
does England harm, every sort of fiiult." And 
again. It is . " the conviction of all nations, that 
England considers them only with reference to her 
own greatness, that she never notices what passes 
among foreigners, wdiat they think, feel, suffer, or 
do — but with relation to the use which England 
can make of their actions, their sufferings, their 
feelings, and theii thoughts ; and that when she 
seems most to care for them, she really cares only 
for herself" If this is not a life-like portrait of 
England, drawn by a master's hand, — then, whose 
portrait is it 1 Tliese few graphic phrases, ap})lied 
by an analytic mind, will place England before 
the world in revelations that will appear little less 
than miraculous. Here is a key more infallible 
than that of St. Peter, which will unlock most 
of the political mysteries of the sea-girt isle in 
I8(jl-'J, — and it may be some others yet to come. 



27 

Here" is the Trent affair, with all the Jesuitical 
twistins's and turning's, in broad day lij^'ht, and at 
the expense of precedents, professions, and prac- 
tice, on the part of England. They have had to 
r wallow a whole volume of their naval history, 
before they could 'assume the ground they have 
taken. It is not the thing done, but the persons 
doing it and the time in which the act was per- 
formed. Here you see Palmerston and Russell, 
and Gladstone giving opinions and making decla- 
rations, respecting our country, which belie all 
the facts of current history, and the blunders of 
which would disgrace a common school-boy — and 
for a purpose which is branded upon their very 
face — in order to exalt England and pull down a 
growing rival. Here is a nation just escaped from 
a fearful civil war, in which they had our sym- 
pathies, turning the current of these good wishes, 
and their material aid too, so far as they can do it 
and keep up a certain anainalous something, which 
they call " a strict neutrality',' in favor of a slave- 
holding reheUion, prompted only by ambition and 
the love of power. England has done this in 
the very face of all her former declarations and 
acts against human bondage, — thus blotting with 
ineff'aceable stains the fairest page of her histor}^ 
Mark me, though not a prophet, nor the son of a 



28 

prophet, — an eartlily retrihiitioii is before thr.t 
nation. 

Sad mistakes in tlie prosecution of this why, on 
on)' part, have entailed upon ns most disastrous 
and disgraceful faihires. It shoukl have been 
ended k")no' ago. It might liave been. It is a 
burning shame to the strong, kn'al Nortli — with 
her twenty milHons, and her large resources of 
every kind, that it has not been done. I know it 
is easy to criticise, and find fault, and condemn. 
The genius of human nature excels in this depart- 
ment of execution; and yet, to a generous mind, 
it is by no means a coveted task. But the iact 
cannot be disguised, that there has been blame 
somewdiere. Two o"reat mistakes mav embrace 
the sum and substance of the whole. These are 
generic. We have underrated the work to be 
done, and we have mistaken and misapplied the 
means in order to effect it. 

The project of bringing back ten revolted States 
to their allegiance, and of pacifying five more in 
strong sympathy with them in social habits and 
domestic institutions, ma}^ be pronounced a great 
undertaking. It was once thought that many of 
the Southern people were truly loyal and a little 
assistance from the government, and tlie influence 
of a benign central power, would bring State after 
State, at the end of a shoi-t l)ut bitter experience 



21) 

of its erratic course, into it^ ixilitical orljit again. 
But one problem has been fully solved. Tlier ; is 
no loyalty, per se, Avliere the love of sUiverj is 
deeply rooted in the heart. And this is as true in 
one latitude as another. There is not one man in 
a hundred among the border-state loyalists, whose 
professed faith to the government is not based on 
the safety of i/egro projiertij. The Constitution 
and oaths of allegiance, are dust in the balance 
against the slave. One negro will turn the head, 
and alienate the heart of any conditional loyal- 
ist or patriot. His phrensy often rises so high, 
when this interest is at stake — dearer than govern- 

o 

nient, or country, or all else that is attractive, that 
his full soul might well exclaim, in a parody on 
the eloquent language of Patrick Henry — " Give 
me my negro, or give me death." There are 
some noble and disinterested exceptions to these 
remarks. 

And, then, few men could have anticipated the 
strong sympathies and the material aid the insur- 
rectionists against tlie best of governments, would 
have received from England and France. They 
have made a record for themselves which — to the 
reproach of their civilization, will cling to their 
name in after ages. I speak not of overt acts of 
government, but of the spirit almost every where 
cherished, — the animus pervading their speeches 



and piiblicaticMis, — tlieir ir/sZ/es, intended to be kept 
secret, and yet l)ut lialf concealed, and Avhicli crop 
out in their every day and minor acts. Any one 
can see that both of these nations lon<j- to do 
towai'd onr government what, as yet, they have 
not dared to perpetrate in the broad da}^ light of 
a cl.ristian world, and against the moral convic- 
tions of the nineteenth century. It would be an 
act which in the judgment of that world, and in 
such an age, would insure uiiiversal reprohatioii fur 
them. 

And few men who have not long and deej)ly 
studied our own national character, \vhen either 
money, or partizan politics are concerned, could 
have believed that the free North would have done 
as much as England and France, to keep aliNe the 
fi \s of this rebellion. But so it is. Money is a 
great god to those who bow down and worship it ; 
and there are politicians who never sleep except 
upon their arms ; and, when out of office, ever lie 
in ambush ready to spring upon their foe, like a 
tiger from his lair, in the moment when they least 
expect it. Had it not been for this lovely and 
loving fraternit)^ — England, France, and Northern 
sympathisers with Southern villiany — quelling 
this rebellion w^ould have been an easy work, 
and a short work. The traitors Avould have utterly 
failed for \\w. want of 1 tread and tlie nuinitions 



31 

of war. The staff of life would have been 
broken, and the sinews of war cut and stranded. 
Here, then, in our circumstances, was a fearful 
work to be accomplished : much more so than our 
government supposed, — than any one living ever 
supposed. 

The means to be employed, and the mode of 
applying them, would naturally take form and 
complexion from our estimate of the work to be 
achieved. Tlie loving policy has been the order 
of the day. The truly energetic has never yet 
been in the ascendant. Nothing is ready when it 
is wanted. From the beginning the government 
has seemed to aim at conquering this rebellion 
without mucli bloody warfare. Stripes of kind- 
ness were to do the deed. Who initiated this 
policy — humane upon the face of it, but cruel and 
wasting in the bitter end — I know not. Some say 
President Lincoln is its author: — and he would 
naturally be under a strong temptation to adopt it, 
in order to conciliate the border-state men, who, 
as a class, I fear, have often done us more luu't than 
good. Some sa}^ Lieut. Gen. Scott, who was 
Commander-in-Chief of our armies, and to whom 
Old Virginia was ever dear as the apple of his eye, 
and seemed in his vision the very gem of perfect- 
ness. Or was it Gen. McClellan, the pupil of our 
venerable Chieftain I or the heads of Department 



32 

— tl^e constitutional advisers of tlie Executive? — 
or all of these officials in joint counsel t I am im- 
pelled to ask these questions, but I cannot answer 
them. Ten thousand loyal, and disappointed 
citizens have asked the same. But it was a great 
mistake whoever did it. They reckoned without 
the"r Lost. They did not seem to know wliat stu f 
Southern men are made of, — nor the Ions: and 
deadly purpose they have cherished to pull down 
the pillars of this government, and i^hatter the 
whole fabric into atoms, if the}^ themselves should 
finally be buried beneath its ruins. Leviathan is 
not thus tamed. Love-tokens will not win him. 
Hence we have been amused, as so man\' children, 
with the tale of the speedy and pacific manner in 
which this little Southern spree was to be closed 
up. A strong cordon was to be thrown around 
the revolted States, or most of them, and that to 
mtimidate, and not destroy ; and then the bands 
of love w^ere to be drawn closer and closer, till 
they sweetly returned into the Union without 
hardly knowing how it Avas, and some of them 
without even knowing they had ever been out 
of it 

But this silken band is not entwined around the 
rebels yet. We have always been about to do 
sometlnng. But wo have not done it. We have 
ha«l boast and bluster enough to satisfy any modest 



33 

man. Six mouths ago our grand army was about 
to press the whole insurgent foe " to the wall," — 
but " the wall " has not been reached yet. At a 
later date, the audacious rebels came into Maryland 
to steal and pillage, and after dealing some sound 
blows upon them, we were told that " the enem}' 
would soon be annihilated, and never re-cross the 
Potomac." They Avent back without obstruction, 
and are as well prepared for resistance to-day, as 
at any former period. It is to be hoped that the 
new military programme, under the control of 
another leader, and under better auspices, will 
effect something worthy of record. The loyal 
national heart beats with strong pulsations for that 
something. 

Tn the prosecution of this war, "hope deferred, 
hath made the heart sick." Early last Spring the 
Mississippi river was to be opened from its head 
waters to the ocean ; and all the sea ports from 
New^ Orleans to the mouth of the Potomac, were 
to be shortly ours, and a legitimate commerce 
again established with all the world, under the old 
" Stars and Stripes." I need not tell you how 
far we have succeeded, and where we have failed. 
Savannah is well fortified, and bids defiance to our 
beleaguering forces ; and Charleston, that old nest 
of serpents, where rebellion was hatched and 
brooded, remains statu quo — poor, yet proud — 
5 



:}4 

determined to resist to tlie last, and if the final 
hour must come, then her sons will commit this 
old Jezebel to a bondfire kindled by their own 
hands. This would be a merited fate. And then 
it should be plowed, as Zion of old was, and some 
divinely commissioned hand should sow it with 
salt, in token of its perpetual desolation. And 
thus the curse of heaven would rest upon the 
mother of rebels. 

I have spoken of delays and reverses, and 
surely we have had enough to fill the cup of our 
national humiliation to the brim, and nearly 
enough to satisfy the malice of our bitterest foe. 
But God's hand is in these disappointments. They 
have not come causeless upon iis, nor w^ithout his 
purpose and direction. We have not been suf- 
ficiently chastized as a nation. Our complicity 
with the great sin of the republic — oppression — 
has been sorely visited upon us, but I fear not yet 
to our humiliation and repentance. But our 
Father has taken his chastizing- rod, and he will 
never lay it down till w^e are scourged out of 
many a national sin, — and, I believe, out of slavery 
among others. If we need more stripes, he will 
lay them on ; and where the scene will end, and 
when, it is not given to mortal man to predict. 
God alone knows. 



That we are not yet right, as a people, on the 
subject of chattel slavery, notwithstanding the 
vials of wrath it has poured out upon us, in this 
rebellion, is manifest from the enmity stirred up 
by the President's Proclamation in certain quarters. 
I mean his Jubilee proclamation. I have often 
wished I could fully comprehend certain stereo- 
typed phrases in vogue among editors and poli- 
ticians in our day. Much is said of maintaining 
the Constitution as it tvas. This seems to be a 
plausible way of intimating, that whatever other 
interest may fail, or go uncared for, we must be 
sure and see that slaveholders are protected in 
their claims upon their chattels. But look upon 
this position for a moment. Would these men 
affirm, and have us believe, that the Constitution 
obliges us to return fugitive slaves to masters who 
are endeavorino- to rend the o-overnment into frao^- 
ments, and who employ these very slaves, when 
returned, to aid in this work of ruin 1 The guar- 
anties of the Constitution were not made for such 
circumstances: and with the change of circum- 
stances, the obligation ceases. Look at it as you 
will, and absurdity is branded upon its forehead. 
South Carolina says she is out of the Union, and 
will never return. The government may annihi- 
late her, but can never bring her back. In this 
attitude, what relief can the Constitution bring 



her — either in the rendition, or the protection, of 
slaves 1 Let some Northern man tell ns what he 
means by applying the Constitution as it was, or 
is, to this case. Or deny the claim, if you please, 
of South Carolina, and say she is not out of the 
Union ; and, therefore, the government should 
fullill all the stipulations of the old compact. Is 
this right secured to rebels who deny all obliga- 
tion on their part, and who are armed to the teeth, 
to aimihilate every legitimate power and interest 
of the government] This would certainly be an 
unusual stretch of political benevolence, that any 
government should feel itself bound to protect — 
and should feel disposed to protect, all the rights 
of insurgents and traitors in the same manner that 
she protects the rights of peaceful and loyal 
citizens. One might dream, that the fabled age 
of gold had visited our politicians. Or is it a 
softer age — the age of pewter in government, that 
has come upon us I And are these politicians to 
be known as pewter heads ? 

It should be remembered, in this connection, 
that a government involved in war, foreign or 
domestic, has certain prerogatives pertaining to 
that condition of things. Has any statesman ever 
denied to the war-power an iidierent element that 
can reacli shwery, or any other institution, which 
lias a mat(M'i;d 1 tearing upon the issue of the con- 



flict, and the o-overnmeut of which — either its 
protection or annihilation — may shorten the road 
to its peaceful end t I shonld like to hear such a 
denial from any man who has studied the laws of 
nations, or the laws of war. Till I hear the 
position taken by John Quincy Adams in the 
American Congress, challenged, or denied, by 
some authority, equally reputable, I am willing- 
to rest upon that. " I lay this down," says this 
profound statesman, " as the law of nations, I 
say that military authority takes, for the time, the 
place of all municipal institutions, and slavery 
among the rest ; and that, under that state of things, 
so far from its being true, that the states where 
slavery exists have the exclusive management of 
the subject, not only the President of the United 
States, hut the commander of the army has jpower to 
order the universal emancipation of the slaves!' 

This is the Constitution, as it was — is now — 
and, I hope, ever shall be, world without end. Its 
ordinary provisions are made for times of peace, 
— that is for ordinary times. But it has, as every 
human instrument should have, and must have, its 
specialties, which adapt it to times of war — foreign 
and domestic — and any other times that may 
occur. We need a Constitution, which, in its pro- 
visions and its interpretations, will afford us pro- 
tection aoainst an enemv from abroad and traitors 



at home. And sucli a Constitution we liave ; and 
we may thank God that it has fallen into the 
hands of interpreters who will apply its every 
peace-power and war-power, so far as ma}' be 
necessary, till this wicked rebellion is ground to 
powder. And it is a significant fact, that in the 
multitude of electioneering speeches with which 
we have been favored of late, filled with broad 
insinuations, that the constitution is in danorer of 
being trodden under foot, — no man who has any 
reputation to hazard, has dared to deny, that the 
M^ar-power gives the government of the United 
States the entire control over the institution of 
slaver//. The doctrine stated and maintained on 
the floor of Congress, by ex-President Adams, has 
not been controverted, as far as I recollect, by any 
of our distinguished speakers, not even b}^ our 
own New York orator, who has, at difi:erent times, 
said much about the Constitution and Slavi;ry, 
and many other things, and who has richly earned 
for himself the Sobriquet — not of " The Great 
Unknoicn^' but of "The Great Unreliable." 
We have had insinuations and inuendoes enough 
about the Constitution, and its stipulations and 
violations, — but the man has not yet been found, 
who carries brass enough to sa}^ openly and frank- 
ly, that the ii^overnmcnt of the United States is 
hound to return fugitive slaves to rebels, or to pro- 



39 

tect the claims of this institution in behalf of those 
loho have renounced their allegiance, and who make 
war upon the Union. If there is such a man, I 
should like to see him. 

I have perhaps said enough of the war policy 
by which our national movements have too gener- 
ally been characterized. There was a time when 
men could have been had in any numbers, and 
this insurrection might have received its quietus in 
a few months. But the government had men 
enough, and refused more. Now the fervor has 
abated, and enlistments have lost their charm. If 
au}^ more troops are called for, they must be pro- 
cured by conscription. Northern patriotism, which 
I have always thought had a strong admixture of 
sudden passion and cool, calculating hypocrisy 
in it, if it has not expired, has burned down to a 
feeble flame, under various influences. Sympathy 
with the cause of the rebels, has become bold and 
outspoken, — politics have intervened to insj)ire the 
South with their old and long cherished hopes of 
democratic aid, — and our utter failure of giving to 
the country and the world some masterly warlike 
demonstration which should inspire the nations 
with the facts of our actual power as it really exists, 
may invite France to undertake the dictation of 
terms to our government. If such intervention 
should take place, my apprehension is that Eng- 



40 

land will easily find some plausible reason for 
joining in this work of pure benevolence. The 
world knows, and Heaven knows, how these 
nations have ah^avs shuddered at the thought of 
shedding- human blood. May God defend us, for 
vain is the help of man, and especially if we fall 
into the hands of such advisers : " Whose mouth 
speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right 
hand of falsehood." 

A more perfect contrast has rarely })een pre- 
sented to the human eye or mind, than by the two 
belligerent parties, in this country, arrayed against 
each other to-daj^. And this contrast 3''ou may 
trace in the aggregate and the minutiae — in the 
broad outline, and in the more delicate filling up. 
I speak not now of the decently uniformed, warm- 
ly clad, well shod, sumptuously fed army on the 
one side, and the butternut colored, fantastically 
attired, bare-footed, half-starved, motley crew on 
the other. There are many exceptions, I should 
say to this picture, on both sides. But tliese, after 
all, are mere externals. The dress is not the man. 
I speak, then, of higher matters. Touching the 
armies I should say, their officers are equal to 
ours, — I fear, take them all in all, they are supe- 
rior. In strategy and masterly retreats, it is a 
clear case, that ours cannot begin witli them in the 
former, or keep up with them, in the latter. But 
I wave all this. The contrast is not here. 



41 

What have been the moral developments, I 
ask, of this war ? Where do we see humanity 
opening- its gushing- heart, amid scenes adapted to 
close it with strong bands of steel ? and where has 
barbarism outstripped its former self in deeds ot 
unwonted infamy 1 Go to the battle-field, and 
there read a lesson never to be forgotten. Where 
do you find, and upon whom do you charge the 
most fiendish cruelty? Who has assailed the 
wounded soldier, that lay bleeding and helpless 
on the ground, witli thi*ust after thnist with the 
bayonet? Who dug up the body of a brave 
officer, and cut off his head, and burned his flesh 
to ashes 1 Who have stripped dead men of their 
apparel, and left them naked on the field to be 
eaten up of dogs, or to decay there I Who have 
crammed dungeons rank with filth and feculence 
with prisoners and the wounded, and denied the 
dying man a cup of cold water even, in the last 
extremity l Who have boiled the flesh from dead 
men's bones, and then manufactured these bones 
into ornaments for themselves and their friends, 
and for sale in the markets 1 Who have been in 
the habit of shooting their captives made in war, 
for showing their faces at the windows of their 
prison-house, — and then been elevated to special 
honors for such foul deeds 1 But I need not 
enlarge this truly humiliating catalogue. I ought 
6 



42 

to add here, that tliis is not a 'fancy sketch, g-ot up 
for the occasion, I have drawn, not upon an 
excited imagination, but upon sober facts, for this 
dark picture. I have conned the details of recent 
history, and not the wild romance of war, for what 
I have now stated. These things, and much more 
of the like character, is confirmed by credible 
witnesses, and embodied in " the Keport of the 
joint Committee on the conduct of the present 
war," made to the Senate of the United States, on 
the 30tli of April last. I subjoin a few details 
from this document. 

Mr. Nathaniel F. Parker, who was captured at 
Falling- Waters, Virginia, testifies, that the 'food of 
the prisoners was always bad, and sometimes 
nauseous ; that the wounded had neither medical 
attention, nor humane treatment, and that many 
died from sheer neglect, — that five of the prisoners 
were shot bv the sentries outside, and that he saw 
one man shot as he was passing his window on 
the 8th of November, and that he died of his 
wound on the 12th. The perpetrator of this foul 
murder was subsequently promoted by the rebel 
government.' 

Dr. J. M. Homiston, surgeon of the Brooklyn 
regiment, captured at Bull Run, testifies ' that when 
he solicited permission to remain on the field to 
attend to wounded men, some of whom were in a 



43 

helpless and painful condition and suffering for 
water, he was brutally refused. They offered 
him neither water nor any thing in the shape of 
food. The secession surgeons would not allow 
ours to perform operations on our own wounded, 
but entrusted them to young assistants, some of 
them with no more knowledge of what they attempted 
to do than an apothecary's clerk! The same witness 
describes ' the sufferings of the wounded after the 
battle as inconceivably horrible, — with bad food, 
no covering, no water.' He adds — " Deaf to all 
his appeals, they continued to refuse water to 
the suffering men, and he was only enabled to 
procure it by setting cups under the eaves to 
catch the rain that was falling, and in this way 
he spent the night, catching the water and convey- 
ing it to the wounded to drink. The young sur- 
geons seemed to delight in hacking and butcher- 
ing the brave defenders of their country's flag, 
while they were not permitted to operate upon 
their own wounded." 

William F. Swalm, assistant surgeon, testifies, 
"that ten or twelve days after the battle (Bull 
Run) he saw some of the Union soldiers unburied 
on the field, and entirely naked. Walking around 
were a great many women, gloating over the horrid 
sight." The case of Dr. Ferguson, of one of the 
New York regiments, is mentioned bv Dr. Swalm. 



44 

" When getting into his (nvu nmbuhmce to look 
after his own wounded, he was fired upon by the 
rebels. When he told them who he was, they said 
they wonld take a parting shot at him, which they 
did, wounding" liim in the leg. He had his boots 
on, and his spurs on his boots, and as they drove 
along his spurs would catch in the tail board of 
the ambulance, causing him to shriek with agony. 
An officer rode up, and placing his pistol to his 
head, threatened to shoot him if he continued to 
scream. This was on Sunday, the day of the 
battle." 

General James B. Ricketts, well known in 
Washington and throughout the country, after be- 
ing wounded, in the battle of Bull Run, was cap- 
tured ; and " as he lay helpless on his back, a party 
of rebels passing by him cried out, knock out his 
brains the d — d Yankee." This brave officer was 
selected by the rebel authorities, when his condi- 
tion was well known, as one of the hostages for 
the pirates. General Beauregard and General 
Winder to whom Gen. Ricketts was well known, 
were the two gentlemen — rather scoundrels — who 
made this selection. Tliis witness confirms the 
statement, that " a number of our men were shot. 
In one instance two were shot; one was killed, 
and the otlier wounded, by a man who rested his 
gini on tlie window sill wliile he capped it. I 



4^.'3 



heard of a great many of onr prisoners who had 
been bayonetted and one of them shot. One was 
named Louis Francis, of the New York 14th. 
He had received foin-teen bayonet-wounds — one 
of which was on the knee, in consequence of 
which his leg was amputated, after twelve weeks 
had passed. Dr. Peachy remarked to one of his 
young assistants, I wont be greedy ; you may do 
it, — and he did it." But we have the whole case 
referred to by Gen. R, from Francis himself He 
says, " I was attacked by two rebel soldiers, and 
wounded in the right knee with the bayonet. As 
I lay on the sod, they kept bayonetting me until 
I received fourteen wounds. One of them left 
me, the other remaining over me, when a Union 
soldier coming up, shot him in the breast, and he 
fell dead. I lay on the ground till 10 o'clock next 
day." Afterwards he was removed to Manassas 
and finally to Richmond. He adds, in his testi- 
mony, " My leg having partially mortified, I con- 
sented that it should be amputated, which opera- 
tion was performed by a young man. The 
stitches and band slipped from neglect, and the 
bone protruded ; and about two weeks after an- 
other operation was performed, at which time 
another piece of the thigh bone was sawed off." 
'Six weeks after, and before the wound was healed, 
he was removed to the Tobacco Factory.' Two 



4(1 

operations were subsequently performed on Fran- 
cis — one at Fortress Monroe, and one at Brooklyn, 
after his release from captivity. 

While Greneral Ricketts was a prisoner and 
wounded, liis wife came to visit liini. He testifies, 
that " There were eight persons in the Lewis 
House, at Manassas, in the room where I lay ; and 
my wife, for two weeks, slept in that room on the 
floor b}^ my side, without a bed. When we got 
to Richmond there were six of us in a room, 
among them Col. Wilcox who remained with us 
until he was taken to Charleston. There we 
were all in one room. There w^as no door to it. 
The passage was filled with wounded soldiers ; 
and in the hot summer months the stench from 
their wounds and the utensils they used, was fear- 
ful. There was no privacy at all, because there 
being no door, the room could not be closed. We 
were there as a common show." He adds, " Gen- 
eral Johnson took my wife's carriage and horses 
at Manassas, kept them, and has them yet for 
ought I know. When I got to Richmond I si)oke 
to several gentlemen about this, and so did Mrs. 
Ricketts. Tliey said ' of course the carriage and 
horses should be returned.' They never were!" 
And, I may add here, ' of course,' tliey never will 
be. 



47 

The report adds, revolting as tliese disclosures 
are, it was when the committee came to examine 
witnesses in reference to the treatment of our 
heroic dead, that the fiendish spirit of the rebel 
leaders was most prominently exhibited. Daniel 
Bixby, Jr., of Washington, testifies, — ' That he 
went out in company with Mr. Gr. A. Smart of 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, who went to search for 
the body of his brother, who fell at Blackburn 
Ford, in the action of the 18tli of July. They 
found the grave. The clothes were identified.' 
" We found no head in the grave, and no bones of 
any kind — nothing but the clothes and portions 
of the flesh! We found the remains of three other 
bodies all together. The clothes were there ; 
some flesh was left, but no bones." This witness 
also states, that Mrs. Pierce Butler, who lived near 
the place, said that she had seen the rebels boiling 
portions of the bodies of our dead in order to 
obtain their bones as relics. " She had seen drum- 
sticks made of Yankees bones, as they called them." 
Mrs. Butler also stated " that she had seen a scull 
that one of the New Orleans Artillery had, which, 
he said, he was going to send home and have 
mounted, and that he intended to drink a brandy 
punch out of it the day he was married." 

Frederick Scholes, of Brooklyn, testifies, among 
other things, as follows : " On Sunday morning I 
went out in search of mv l^rother's o-rave. We 



48 

found the trench, and dug for the bodies below. 
In one end of the trench we found, not more tlian 
two or three inches below the surface the thig-h 
bone of a man which had evidently been dug 
up after the burial. While digging there a party 
of soldiers came along, and showed us a part of a 
shin bone, five or six inches long, which had the 
end sawed off. They said they had found it 
among other pieces in one of the cabins the rebels 
had deserted. From the appearance of it, pieces 
had been sawed off to make finder riniis. As 
soon as the negroes noticed this, they said that the 
rebels had had rings made of the bones of the 
dead, and that they had them for sale in their 
camp." 

The testimony of Gov. Sprague, of Rhode Is- 
land, confirms the statements, however revolting, 
of other witnesses. He visited the battle ground 
to search for the bodies of Col. Slocum and Major 
Ballou. 'He found that the body of Major Ballon 
had been mistaken for that of Col. Slocum, dug 
up, and the head cut off, and his body taken to a 
ravine, and there burned.' This was done by 
some Georgians who were greatly insensed against 
Col. Slocum, 'because he had destroyed about 
one half of their regiment, made up of their best 
citizens.' This was done says the Governor, " in 
sheer hrntuVity and nothing else!' In searching for 



/ 



49 

Capt. Tower, the witness says, " in opening the 
ditcli or trench, we fonnd it filled with soldiers, 
all buried with their faces downward." And when 
asked ' wdiether he was satisfied that they were 
buried intentionally with their faces downward,' — 
his answer was : " Undoubtedly ! Beyond all con- 
troversy." 

But the other details I cannot give here. In 
the language of the Report, " The outrages upon 
the dead will revive the recollections of the 
cruelties to which savage tribes subject their 
prisoners. They were buried, in many cases, 
naked, with their faces downward ; they were left 
to decay in the open air ; their bones were carried 
off as trophies, sometimes, as the testimony proves, 
to be used as personal adornments, and one witness 
deliberately avers, that the head of one of our 
most gallant officers was cut off by a secessionist 
to be turned into a drinking cup on the occasion 
of his marriage, Monstrous as this revelation 
may appear to be, your committee have been 
informed, that during the last two weeks a scull 
of a Union soldier has been exhibited in the office 
of the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Kepre- 
sentatives, which had been converted to such a 
a purpose, and which had been found on the per- 
son of one of the rebel prisoners taken in a recent 
conflict. The testimony of Gov. Sprague of Rhode 
7 



oO 

Island, is most interesting-. It confirms the worst 
reports against the- rebel soldiers, and conclusively 
proves that the body of one of the bravest officers 
in the volunteer service, was burned. He does not 
hesitate to add that this hyena desecration of the 
honored corpse was because the rebels believed 
it to be the body of Col. Slocum, against whom 
they were infuriated for having displayed so much 
courage and chivalry in forcing his regiment fear- 
lessly and bravely upon them." 

I close these horrid details by saying, that no 
human institution in civilized life ever bied such 
men as form the Ijasis and superstructure of this 
rebellion — or could do it — except slavery. And 
yet many among us love it, and defend it. They 
look upon it as others do upon rum, as one of the 
great and good gifts of God. And too many who 
love the one, love the other also. 

But this so called divine institution is doomed. 
It has all the sad marks of God's reprobation upon 
it. From its birtli to its expiring hour, it is hardly 
greeted by a solitary ray of heaven's pure and 
blessed light. It begins in foreign rapine and 
plunder, — its cold blooded murders, during tlie 
middle passage, purple the Atlantic wave, — it was 
engrafted upon our system, at the close of the 
Revolution, in solemn mockery of all our national 
manifestoes, and in profane derision of the patriot- 



51 

blood that smoked upon our soil during our strug- 
gle for freedom and independence, — we have flat- 
tered it by concessions, propped it up by compro- 
mises, bribed it by special gratuities, defended its 
life and honor by mob violence, made presidents 
by the mysterious magic of its name, and told the 
earth and the heavens of our determination to 
cling to this American idol, if we cut loose from 
every thing else. During the present fearful 
struggle, the rebels have fought bravely to shield 
it from injury and keep it from death, and we, by 
many anomalous acts, have played the fool, for 
the same purpose. Our generals in the field who 
tried to make the traitor Breckenridge — the slave- 
holders candidate — President,- have been true to 
their political instincts, and waged war slowly — 
yea, tenderly, for fear of inflicting too severe a 
punishment upon the rebels by marring their idol- 
ized institution, and lest by overthrowing it alto- 
gether, they might exterminate for ever the possi- 
bility of all similar insurrections. Tlie institution 
must be spared as far as possible, and above all 
its tender roots must be left unharmed in the soil. 
Was ever national infatuation more absurd, or 
more extravagant I Philosophy is the onl}^ true 
expounder of history. What a man does, is a 
simple fact, — why he does it, is the rationale of that 
fact. But it will not all do. Slavery, in our 



52 

present agitations, is tlie all-pervading element. 
But the foundations of the system are breaking 
up. The proclamation of President Lincoln is 
doing its own work. Freedom to the captives, 
instead of being harmless as so much waste paper, 
or as the Pope's Bull against the comet, is a dag- 
ger in the heart of the rebellion. It was a bold 
step. I honor the man who could take it. It 
might well electrify and astonish two hemispheres, 
as it has done, — and leaving our world, which is 
deeply involved in the results, it is not too much 
to say, it may have electrified heaven and astonish- 
ed hell. And when the year of Jubilee shall come, 
as come it will, and come it must — whether it be 
with the dawn of 1868, or at some later period — 
then this broad, g-oodlv land, one — and indivisible 
for ever, shall celebrate the second hirth-day of 
freedom, and the nations of tlie earth, and emanci- 
pated Africa among them, shall unite in one grand 
Anthem, and the earth and the heavens shall join 
in the universal chorus, as with "the voice of 
many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, 
saying, Allaluia : for tlie Lord God omnipotent 
reignetUy Though seventy-^eren years old to-da\', 
I hope yet to live long enough to see these bright 
visions of the future full}- accomplished. 

Amen. 



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